Magazines are becoming more innovative by embracing mobile and digital platforms enabling brands to engage consumers using fully integrated campaigns, according to three Fortune 500 marketers who spoke at the Dallas Advertising League’s 12th annual Magazine Day luncheon.Ruby Anik, senior vice president of Brand Marketing at J.C. Penney Co. Inc. (JC Penney), Paul Golden, chief marketing officer at Samsung Telecommunications America and Erick Soderstorm, vice president of Brand Marketing and Advertising at AT&T, discussed on May 10, 2011 the ‘sending power’ “of print” relative to the digital content inundating consumers. “Everything is media today,” said Soderstorm, who stressed the importance of having a dialogue instead of a monologue with consumers. He said an exchange of ideas creates advocacy. He urged magazines to “be trend hunters” and to remember that content is still king.Anik said her company, in an effort to reach teen consumers, was challenged by the mindset “it’s our mothers’ store.” JC Penney created a “sweet 16 group,” said Anik. The team uses a “360-degree, fully integrated” approach in successfully promoting “hot” items to the 16-year-old demographic, she said.Golden outlined an “integrated campaign with Condé Nast” that asked consumers what they wanted. He said he could not reveal specific results and summarized by stating Samsung received “double digit brand metric lifts” that engaged the audience with “digital content and community.”Don Rossi, senior advisor of Marketing and Advertising at The Association of Magazine Media, moderated the panel discussion, which was held at the Hyatt Regency Dallas.

From left to right: Kelly Walker, account executive at The Wall Street Journal, and I after the Dallas Ad League luncheon.

Author:

Regina L. Burns, Project+, M.A., is a new media producer whose journalism and media relations experience include television, radio and print. And, she has created web content, edited stories and written for The Associated Press in Jackson, Miss., and Dallas, Texas.